Blogs, Wikis, and Collaborative Word Processors all:
Provide a collaborative space where students can draft, revise, publish, and discuss their work.
Exist online and can be accessed from any computer connected to the web.
Provide a detailed archive of drafting history.
Allow students to fill their presentations with multimedia tools and hyperlinks.
But what makes each tool different?
Blogs...
Provide a professional site where students or instructors may engage in more permanent digital publishing. Unlike a wiki or word processor, blogs are generally not editable by anyone viewing, but they do provide a comments section where public discussion can take place. Blogs are often best when the idea is to have students respond to a body of work without necessarily revising or editing that work. They also represent the most professional platform for publishing a final draft.
Provide the most flexibility of any platform. With their many widgets, including a basic HTML console, it is possible to embed virtually anything programmed in front-end code--from images, to YouTube videos, to browser-based video games, to formatting tools, to music players, to dice simulators, to spreadsheets and other uploaded documents. The possibilities are endless. Additionally, unlike blogs, wikis allow all registered users to edit any page while at the same time representing a published product. This allows students to collaborate directly on the published product while enjoying the discussion functionalities of a blog. Finally, users on a wiki can create a new wiki page easily at any time by enclosing a to-be hyperlinked text in double brackets. This allows students to draft in fresh new space easily at any time.
There are three popular ways to use wikis--to compile student work while allowing students to read and discuss each others' work; to have students respond with serial work, where student A writes one part of an assignment, and then student B writes the next part, and student C revises the two parts into one piece of writing; and to have students co-author one large document over the space of the entire wiki.
You're reading this presentation on a wiki! However, here is another example.
Collaborative Word Processors...
Provide a word processor where other students can comment directly on the draft or even edit its content. This allows teachers to engage in writing in a way that students may view remotely, and it allows students to provide each other with comments and suggestions on a fine level of detail. This is an especially useful feature since students can engage in this editing through any computer anywhere in the world with an internet connection. The main limitations of word processors of these kinds is that they typically do not allow for embedded products much more sophisticated than a hyperlink, and they do not represent published work. Often, students may want to do their drafting on a collaborative word processor and publish on a wiki or blog.
Google Docs is the most well known and popular collaborative word processor; however, others like Dropbox's Paper, do exist.
Blogs, Wikis, and Collaborative Word Processors all:
But what makes each tool different?
Blogs...
Provide a professional site where students or instructors may engage in more permanent digital publishing. Unlike a wiki or word processor, blogs are generally not editable by anyone viewing, but they do provide a comments section where public discussion can take place. Blogs are often best when the idea is to have students respond to a body of work without necessarily revising or editing that work. They also represent the most professional platform for publishing a final draft.
Example
Wikis...
Provide the most flexibility of any platform. With their many widgets, including a basic HTML console, it is possible to embed virtually anything programmed in front-end code--from images, to YouTube videos, to browser-based video games, to formatting tools, to music players, to dice simulators, to spreadsheets and other uploaded documents. The possibilities are endless. Additionally, unlike blogs, wikis allow all registered users to edit any page while at the same time representing a published product. This allows students to collaborate directly on the published product while enjoying the discussion functionalities of a blog. Finally, users on a wiki can create a new wiki page easily at any time by enclosing a to-be hyperlinked text in double brackets. This allows students to draft in fresh new space easily at any time.
There are three popular ways to use wikis--to compile student work while allowing students to read and discuss each others' work; to have students respond with serial work, where student A writes one part of an assignment, and then student B writes the next part, and student C revises the two parts into one piece of writing; and to have students co-author one large document over the space of the entire wiki.
You're reading this presentation on a wiki! However, here is another example.
Collaborative Word Processors...
Provide a word processor where other students can comment directly on the draft or even edit its content. This allows teachers to engage in writing in a way that students may view remotely, and it allows students to provide each other with comments and suggestions on a fine level of detail. This is an especially useful feature since students can engage in this editing through any computer anywhere in the world with an internet connection. The main limitations of word processors of these kinds is that they typically do not allow for embedded products much more sophisticated than a hyperlink, and they do not represent published work. Often, students may want to do their drafting on a collaborative word processor and publish on a wiki or blog.
Google Docs is the most well known and popular collaborative word processor; however, others like Dropbox's Paper, do exist.